Tabbing probs

[Michael]

> No, I think you don't get at the real problem:
> People do use tabs which are 8 spaces, but they
> want their code to be indented by steps of four.
> This creates mixed tabbing, and that's what you
> see way too often when reading foreign code.
> You have to adjust your editor to *that* tabbing,
> before editing the file, and then convert or
> live with it.

How would this create mixed tabbing unless sometimes they are using 
spaces as tabs and sometimes using tabs as tabs? Will stopping the use 
of tabs improve the situation or will that just mean that some people 
use four spaces for indention and some people use eight.. both being a 
hack to try to make spaces act like tabs. Why does it matter if a tab is 
4 spaces long or 8 spaces long? Either way blocks should line up 
assuming that nobody incorrectly tries to use spaces as tabs. If we get 
rid of support for using tabs for indenting then what? Some people (like 
myself) will continue using programs that insert tabs when  they press 
the tab key and everyone else will still be adjusting their editors to 
try to substitute the desired number of spaces when the tab key is 
pressed. What would be fixed?

It took a long time to convince me that Python wasn't insane for making 
whitespace significant. If people really have so much trouble with it (I 
don't) maybe it is a bad idea to use it to indicate code blocks?